Has Twitter Jumped the Shark? Sort of.

Fonzie did it on “Happy Days“, and then we all knew the end was near for that long running TV series.

Aston’s “shark” was 1 Million Twitter followers.

He jumped it, alright, with plenty of room to spare. Even dragged a major news network with him.

Does this shark jump portend “the end” for Twitter?

Maybe not the end, but at the very least it has hit a tipping point.

This race for pure numbers signaled a transition to where the “broadcasters” now outnumber the “conversationalists”.

Where quantity is king, just like any other broadcast medium, be they subscribers, TV households, circulation – or followers.

Where the wholesale mentality reigns supreme – “Hey, since I’ll only convince 1%, I better get a lot of ’em“!

I mark this transition with a bit of sadness, but I too realize that it was inevitable. I’m sure those 1st pioneers who patrolled the “World Wide Web” in relative solitude 20 years ago felt the same way.

It’s just too easy, too cool, and too convenient – and free (unless you buy one of those $100 “Get 20,000 followers” CDs – and then its still pretty close to free).

So now the interesting thing will be how this new Twitter era progresses – will we soon be talking about “follower monetization” in the same way we used to talk about “eyeball monetization” in the late 90’s?

Will we soon be seeing business plans that put a value on me, based on who I follow, or my “propensity to follow”, or the TV shows I Tweet about or CDs I recommend, or all of the above?

Let’s just say I wouldn’t be surprised.

Of course, we conversationalists will continue to Tweet away as this is going on, since after all our cost of entry was also zero, and we can still deal with the broadcast clutter.

Oh yes, we’ll also follow some of the broadcasters too, just like we listen to radio stations or tune into a television program.

Eventually we will cease to converse and just “listen”, because we will have moved on to something else, our newest conversational oasis, whatever it may be.

I’ve seen it happening already – many of my earliest (and most active) Twitter friends make rarer and rarer appearances these days.

C’est la vie. But rest assured I will continue ride the Twitter train for the foreseeable future, because I also was one of those who watched Happy Days long after Fonzie jumped the shark.

Because after all, it was the Fonz who pioneered communication in less than 140 characters.

Comments

Oh, how right you are. I’ve only been here since November, but I notice a HUGE difference in the frequency of tweeting of people I used to see many times a day. Maybe this is just a natural progression of people getting enthused, fanatical, and then blase’. Maybe those who were not in it to con anyone are just getting bored. Pity.

the followers race has little if any effect on twitter users who want conversations. I don’t follow CNN for conversations – I keep it in my news column. I don’t really expect a conversation with a Scoble, for that matter – I just like to see what he has to say. But my ‘listener’ time is a fraction of my ‘exchange’ time. There are any number of twitter tools that let you pull the stuff you want to the top of the pile. The power of Twitter is that it is as large as your follower count and as small as the number of users you converse with regularly – and that power is undiluted by the ashtons and the oprahs.

Okay, Terry, so just when I am actually starting to enjoy Twitter — literally only in the last 7 days — you tell me the party is over?

Just when I’ve finally moved from feeling like a fruitcake yelling to myself on a busy street corner to actually having interesting and fun conversations with real people (or very good imitations of)? And when I’m finding lots of great links to articles & sites I would never have bothered with on my own?

Well, hey, I’m going to stick around with the other non-avant garde until I find something better. Or tweeting interferes with my tan. Glad to know you’ll still be here, too! Thanks for interesting post. Kat

I’m told it’s not PC to complain about celebs on the service, but Twitter jumped the shark the first time a certain woman with a popular afternoon talkshow tweeted. (I avoid mentioning her name as a rule of thumb.)

But just because Twitter has passed some arbitrary coolness line, doesn’t mean it’s not still one of the most useful communication tools on the net — one I intend to make full use of for the indefinite future.

Did it really jump the shark? Or are all these “broadcasters” just bringing in more people for us to converse with?

The best thing about twitter is that you choose who you want to follow, you choose who you want to converse with? Too much noise coming from Oprah, CNN or even @starbucker, then unfollow them? Stick with those that offer what you want.

The beauty of twitter is that you get out of it what you put in. Only want to follow conversationalists, then that’s what you do 🙂